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VIDEO: UCLA DE Eli Ankou on his first day.

UCLA’s Eli Ankou, a 6-foot-3, 245-pound defensive end, made his first appearance at practice on Wednesday. He’s had a pretty long day going back to a nine-hour flight from Ottawa to Los Angeles, and the layover in Philadelphia didn’t help. But Ankou is excited to be Bruin. He was surprised and excited when he learned that the Bruins needed him now. So after a few days of sorting out paper work Ankou is finally here to add depth on the defensive line.

“I was surprised but definitely, definitely excited,” Ankou said. “That was one thing I wanted to do was come in early and show the coaches what I’m capable of.”

UCLA coach Jim Mora said that realistically Ankou won’t see playing time until next year.

“Eli’s a talented young man who hasn’t played a lot of American football,” Mora said. “He’s a hard worker and very smart but he’s still got a lot to learn in terms of technique but I know he’ll work at it.”

Ankou didn’t slack just because he was going to greyshirt. If anything, he took his training regiment up to another level.

“As soon as I heard the word greyshirt it was all boosters on,” Ankou said. “For a lot of weeks I was doing five days a week. A lot of squats, leg, power, speed, agility.”

Mora said UCLA didn’t monitor his conditioning. That was all on Ankou, who has always been good about keeping up with conditioning.

“If you look at Eli you can tell he’s the kind of kid that takes a lot of pride in keeping himself physically fit,” Mora said. “He’s big and strong looking, and yet still lean. I think he does a good job of taking care of his body. When we recruited him that was the feedback we got from people we talked to, that he was a contentious kid.”

Ankou is not likely to play Saturday against Nebraska. But he’ll be dressed for the game, and is now closer to the Rose Bowl than he was in Ottawa.

Thanks, Miguel. Good interview. So glad that Eli’s here. He handles himself well, is obviously very intelligent, and seems ready to contribute whenever and wherever Coach Jim needs him. A great kid.

vvvbj

So….he realistically wont play this year…so he redshirts instead of greyshirt?

Anonymous

This way he’ll count against this year’s scholarship total and frees up a scholarship for next year class.

bruinbiochem06

…That, and he’ll be able to practice with the team and learn the system versus practice on his own. Eli seems to have a good head on his shoulders, the prototype student-athlete!

jk1926

Perhaps you meant to write “Conscientious Kid” rather than “Contentious Kid”? Sorry didn’t have the time nor bandwidth to watch the video so I didn’t hear what Coach Mora actually said but he no doubt prefers the former to the latter….

Anonymous

Sorry…but I can’t stop the comparisons….We get this well spoken nice young man out of Canada, while Fig tech gets a person released early from County Jail. No wonder those guys are all arrogant.
ThaiMex

Jon Gold

Anyone know where I can find a Happy Burger around here?

Anonymous

Does he run a sub-3hr marathon?

Anonymous

Jon…your act is OLD and TIRED and just plain LAME…I thought you were moving on….”you see…I’ve got this theory……”

bibs

Any reason why the sound doesn’t come through on most of your videos? Your writing is good,but your spelling looks like you went to suc for school.

Mr. Obvious

“Does he run a sub-3hr marathon?”

No, but then again, he’s not an allegedly-former Muslim using American blood and treasure to establish shari’a states throughout Dar al-Islam, either.

MaltBaa

Donny Edwards?

Ann

so now were worried about his spelling.. and what’s the deal with this moron asking about where the food is..
Good reporting keep it up and just ignore the morons and passed staff members

Chaz Bono

I miss filming “Just Two Fat Guys Talking Football.” I miss Jon talking over and berating me for 10 minutes in front of a shaky camera.

Good times!

8 namkiA

Well said, Mr. Obvious! Why liberals choose a sports blog to spew hatred is beyond me. Can’t we leave that crap at the door!?!

Welcome aboard, Eli!

Nacho El Taquero

At this point, there is more news on Bruins Nation than here. Wish DN would just hire Miguel and give him the blog and let him run free. This is outrageous that DN still does not have a beat reporter for the UCLA Bruins.

VB

I agree. I’m not sure what the Daily News is doing right now. They had Miguel do fantastic coverage of the Fall camp, but then once the season started, coverage has been sub-par. Jon Gold still hasn’t officially “left” the blog, and there is no update on who is taking over the UCLA coverage permenantly.

GET IT TOGETHER DAILY NEWS! HOW COULD YOU HAVE LET THIS BLOG DROP SO FAR FROM WHERE BRIAN DOHN BROUGHT IT? This used to be THE PLACE to visit for up-to-the-minute news and updates. Now, like Nacho said, we can get more information from the homer blog, Bruinsnation.

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